Could You Be
by Shadokin
Summary: Riley used to be a Firefly. She was more important now. [Sequel to Backwards Immunity; role reversal story where Riley and Tess are the main characters]
1. Goodbye, He Went

**A/N: While technically a sequel to my other story, _Backwards Immunity_ , this can be read without reading that (think of it as the Left Behind equivalent to this story).  
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It was supposed to be about getting the guns. Just a simple delivery, a not exactly close drop off, and then back to collect double the reward.

Except the cargo was a kid, and the people at the drop off where all dead. Lying in a pool of their own blood, each person had been shot to death.

"Now what?" was the biggest question hanging over their heads.

It should have been. It wasn't.

The bite of Joel's arm had been hidden under his sleeve. That should've been Tess's first clue. Joel didn't roll down his sleeves in the summer.

"What did I say, Tess?" He spoke in a heavy voice, one sleeve rolled up, "Sooner or later, out luck was gonna run out."

The surrounding skin of the bite looked blotched, fungus infused tissue already showing how long the infection had to sit in.

It was such bullshit.

"This is bullshit, _why_ didn't you tell me when it happened?"

"I figured I still had enough time to make it here. To make sure the both of you made it here."

Her eyes felt irritated. Tess blinked it away, trying to process the situation. Her jeans stuck uncomfortably against her skin, the socks in her boots weighed with dirty water from the flooded street outside. She was sweaty, and ready to head home, and on edge because she knew she wasn't headed there.

"And what now?" Tess said, arms opened wide in an exaggerated gesture. "Everyone's dead, Joel."

"We"—he choked, they weren't a _we_ anymore—"I…"

Tires over water and engines cut their talk short.

Joel was over to the window in seconds. "Goddamnit," He said, catching sight of the military vehicles. "Alright."

He was approaching her and Tess stared at his face, already knowing it would be the last time she would get to see it.

"You both need to get outta here."

"What?" The cargo, the kid, had a face of frightened anger. Joel looked over to her, his mouth opened but silent. Tess couldn't imagine what he was going to say. Apparently, he couldn't either. His mouth shut, and his eyes returned to her.

"Tess…" He said her name, waiting for her to get it. He was steel and fire. Someone she could count on. But Tess could already feel herself moving, heading over to the kid, dragging her by the arm, "C'mon, Riley, we gotta move," until Riley started walking with her, pulling from her grip but still on her heels.

"What? We can't just leave—"

"Yes we can!"

Tess knew not to look back. She did it anyway. Joel was scratching the back on his head, his lips were pressed together, and the tension in his forehead was gone. He was infected. He was going to die.

Tess wanted to go back and risk kissing him one last time. Instead she headed into the next room, looking back after she stepped through the threshold.

"Oh man." Riley said. Joel was still looking their way, a lone man in the middle of a large room.

There was no more time to waste.

Tess closed the door.

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 **A/N: A short beginning to a long journey. This is going to take forever to write.**


	2. A Long Road Ahead

They made it out of the building and down underground. Spores were everywhere, and the soldiers were still following them.

"Shit," Tess whispered, sparing a glance towards Riley. "Do you need a mask?"

It would've been too late if she did. One breathe in of active spores was a death sentence. But Riley shook her head.

"No. Apparently I'm immune to that too." She said it like it wasn't something _she_ believed. Sill, Tess found herself wishing she had taken Joel's mask with her. If anything, she could've kept it as a backup in case hers ever broke.

"They're here." Riley said, drawing her attention back.

"Alright," Tess said, looking over their cover—at least the soldiers had flashlights on. "Let's not fight them if we can. Focus on getting out."

"Okay." Riley said, and Tess could sense the kid touching the gun at her hip. Damn, Joel had most of the ammo between them. And guns. She should've taken that, she should've taken—

"Follow me." Tess was worried about keeping her voice low and making sure Riley heard her, but the kid kept at her side as she moved out from behind cover.

The soldiers were easy enough to avoid. They didn't want to stay down in the tunnels any longer than she did, so they stuck close to the entrance, the opposite of where they were headed.

"Through here." She led Riley through a series of abandoned trains. The spores in the air didn't lighten up, but it wasn't until they got through the second car did she feel comfortable putting her flashlight on.

"Uh…" Riley started, her steps slowed down. Tess cursed under her breath and turned back around.

"What?"

"I can't swim, remember?"

The train was broken up and buried underwater. Tess could already tell she'd have to swim under to get through. The soldiers were still behind them, but hopefully there was enough distance they wouldn't be able to hear anything.

She looked around. There was a passage to the left of the tunnel; the end of it looked blocked by rubble. Upon closer inspection she could see an opening near the bottom and motioned for Riley to come over.

"What do you think?" She asked. "You'll have to hold your breath, but only for a moment or two."

"I don't…" Riley crouched down to the hole and measured herself against it. "I think I'll get stuck."

Tess sighed, looking to the path she had to take.

"Then we got no choice. Wait here." She didn't leave enough time for Riley to protest and stepped down into the water. Eventually up to her shoulders were submerged underwater, and Tess still couldn't feel the bottom with her shoes.

"I'm going to check out how to get through down here," Tess explained. "I'll be right back. Make sure to keep quiet. The soldiers shouldn't come back here, but let's not give them a reason."

With that, she took a breath and dove down. It was much clearer in the water, which Tess was grateful for. She swam through another train car to the other side and came up for air.

The swim through would be easy enough, but were there any infected in the area? She couldn't hear them, but there were too many spores around and she hadn't seen a source for them yet. Tess took a few breaths before deciding the military was the bigger threat at the moment.

"Well?" Riley asked as soon as her head popped back out of the water. Tess waited another beat, listening for the soldiers before talking.

"We're going to swim through." She said, pausing again as she waited for Riley to object. The kid looked understandably reluctant, but said nothing.

"Come down here." Tess said, swimming over to the edge Riley would be stepping down from. "I gotcha."

She kept a hand under Riley's shoulder as she stepped, then slipped and splashed down fast into the water.

"You okay?" Tess asked, wincing as she heard her voice rise. Riley looked shaken, one of her hands going back to the edge behind her as she croaked out an uneasy, "I'll live."

Tess moved back to the deeper part of the pool. "Alright. We're going to go through here. You'll hold onto me, okay?"

Her hand touched Riley's arm as she waded farther in. Riley's hand turned upwards and grabbed back.

"How long can you hold your breath?"

Riley eyes went down.

"Not very long."

"How about ten seconds? Think you can manage that?"

Tess earned a silent nod and felt relief. "Okay. You're going to hold onto me and kick with your feet only, you got that?"

Another nod.

"Just, put your head under for a moment. Get a feel for it. You don't want water rushing through your nose halfway through."

Riley closed her eyes, air puffing her cheeks out and submerged herself, her arm still holding onto Tess.

She was panting when she came back up, wiping excess water from her eyes.

"This is going to ruin my hair." Riley muttered, her fingers reaching back to touch her pulled back ponytail.

"I'm sorry," Tess said quickly. "Are you ready?"

They made it to the other side, with Riley coughing up water and covering her mouth, trying to stop the sound coming out.

"Don't fight it," Tess warned, "You'll just make it worse. Get it out now before we run into any real trouble."

Her voice was louder, and with the way Riley looked at her, she had noticed as well. But they were far enough away the soldiers wouldn't be chasing after them anymore, and she couldn't hear any infected close by. For the moment things felt relatively safe.

There was still the issue of the tunnel being filled to the brim with spores, but beggars can't be choosers.

"We'll push on. There has to be an exit somewhere ahead." Tess said, and Riley headed to the left side of the passageway, hiking it over the railing where the water was shallow and only came up to her ankles.

"It's so dark down here." Riley said, and Tess shined the flashlight to her, swimming over and following her over the railing. The water splashed loudly as her boots hit the ground, and Tess remembered her spare clothing back in her apartment and sighed. It wasn't like they had been given a lot of preparation before setting out.

"Hey." Riley said, and then she was jogging ahead. Tess didn't bother telling her not to run with water everywhere. Not enough strength in her to get the words out.

It was a dead body, not infected, which meant it had been down there for a good while. Riley picked up the flashlight from the corpse and clicked it on.

"That's lucky."

Tess didn't respond, looking across the water to the other side. "There's a ladder over there. I'll get it down and then help you over."

Tess ignored the slime and sludge sweeping over her skin as she went back down into the water. She couldn't remember the last time she enjoyed a swim. She made her way to the other side of the tunnel, looking up to the height where the ladder was. It took longer than a few minutes—it was almost just out of reach—but she managed to hook one of her arms over the ledge and drag the ladder down.

"What's that?" Tess asked, voice strained as she swam back over to Riley. Paper in hand, Riley was still standing over the corpse, reading whatever was on the page.

"…They were waiting to bring someone named Frank into the Quarantine Zone."

Tess grunted. "All right, c'mon, let's go."

They were up the ladder in no time, Riley wiping her eyes from the spores and Tess just wanted to get out of the damn tunnel. Wind came down through the hall, and Tess forced herself to keep pace. Before passing the metal gate she caught sight of the source of the spores.

"There's fungus coming outta the walls." Riley says, ducking her head to keep far away from brushing the fungi. Tess looked up to the ceiling, where more had grown above them.

"Well now we know how the spores got here."

Riley was ahead of her, and jogging again as soon as they went through the gate, seeing stairs leading upwards, and the sky at the end.

"Let there be light." Riley whispered, moving along. Tess was still climbing up by the time she hopped out of the tunnel, keeping her steps even, not wanting to lose her footing and have her mask fly off so close to breathable air.

The sky never looked so blue before, and the grass was as green as ever. Tess couldn't believe how beautiful the sight before her was, and after several steps into it she took off her mask and let it drop to the ground.

Fresh air. She opened her mouth and took a deep breath. Behind her, Riley took a seat, letting her bag down in front of her. She pulled the zipper opened, but stopped after reaching in.

"Tess…"

Her eyes were closed. She waited a moment before turning back to Riley.

"He was always stubborn." Tess said, "It was going to happen eventually. One of us was going to go down that way, I knew it, I just…"

Riley was looking at her with strange eyes. Like she understood the kind of history Tess and Joel had with each other.

"We need a plan. Find a way to get you wherever it is you need to go," Tess reached down, grabbed her mask. "There's a town. A guy there that can help us along. It's just a few miles down the road. We should get moving."

"Okay, okay," Riley said, her voice trailing low. "Can I just take a minute?"

Tess looked around the area. They were on a street taken over by grass and trees, but the area was still open. They weren't going to be taken by surprise at least.

"Alright, but not too long. Military probably won't find us here but the sooner we're out of this city the safer will be." She paused. "Relatively speaking."

Riley nodded, and Tess focused in on her. The girl pulled off her the gloves on her hands, shaking each of them out, water drops flying through the air. On her left hand the bite was visible, an overgrown crescent between her thumb and index. Proof that she was important.

Not like Joel's. It was only a few hours ago. When was he bitten? Was it the clicker that got the jump on him, or did it happen when they were separated?

Riley leaned forward and put her head between her legs, holding it there. She was shaken, of course, and Tess thought about sitting down beside her, putting a hand on her back and asking her if she was okay.

"How old are you?" She asked instead. Her voice sounded raw from unshed tears. Riley turned her head just enough to show her own young, old eyes looking at Tess.

"I'm sixteen."

That's when it clicked in her head.

"Sixteen? Is that why you joined the Fireflies?" It was the age where the military decided if a one became a soldier or civilian. Someone who enforced the strict law of life in a Quarantine Zone, or someone forced into the same lot as Joel and Tess, working the black market. Fireflies would've been a way out of both of those paths though.

Riley looked back to the ground. Her shoulders were still tense. "Yeah."

From where she stood, Tess could see the pendant dangling from Riley's neck. It swung gently, glimmering as it caught a ray of light. It was dazzling, and just another reminder of the trip that laid before them.

"Alright, we should move." She said, motioning for Riley to follow. She took a few steps and waited, looking back to see Riley stand up, gloves in her hands but not on them. She took her backpack and hoisted it on her shoulders, nodding Tess' way.

"Lead on."

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 **A/N: This is an unbetaed story that I'm writing as I go, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated.**


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